[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 50 (Thursday, April 27, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2949-S2950]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            MARRIAGE PENALTY

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, the reason I want to talk today is I think 
it is important for the minority to have its voice heard around here. 
The first of May is approaching, and we are again being called on to 
vote on the so-called marriage penalty bill. The majority will argue 
that if you support the marriage penalty, you must vote for cloture. 
That certainly is transparently false. Here is why.
  This procedural vote has nothing to do with limiting the marriage 
penalty, which the Democrats support certainly just as strongly as the 
Republicans. In fact, the vote is another attempt by Republicans to 
shield their deeply flawed tax bill from scrutiny by the Senate and by 
the public. In effect, we are being gagged.
  Republicans don't want to debate this bill because they don't want 
anyone to know what is really in it. In truth, it is marriage penalty 
relief in

[[Page S2950]]

name only. Sixty percent of the measure on which we are going to vote 
today is for matters that have nothing to do with the marriage penalty. 
Sixty percent of the $248 billion proposal goes to people who do not 
face a marriage penalty.
  The majority likes to talk about relevance. I know a little bit about 
relevance, as I think most people do. Sixty percent of this bill is 
irrelevant to the marriage penalty.
  The majority is seeking to cut off debate on this bill before it is 
even begun. Invoking cloture would also block Democratic amendments 
that propose better ways to eliminate the marriage penalty and to 
address other urgent priorities such as prescription drug benefits for 
seniors.
  Democratic amendments say, yes, let's fix the marriage penalty for 
people who actually pay it. In fact, one of the amendments proposed by 
Senators Moynihan and Baucus, the lead Democrats in the Finance 
Committee, says: There are 65 marriage penalty provisions in the Tax 
Code with one sentence; let's eliminate all of them. That is one of the 
things we are being prevented from bringing forward.
  We want to move forward and start legislating the way this Senate has 
debated for over 200 years. We have agreed to say, OK, we are not going 
to go along with what the Senate has done for 200 years. We will play 
the game of the majority in an effort to allow our voices to be heard 
just a little bit.
  Even though the Standing Rules of the Senate don't require it, we 
have bent over backwards to keep our list of amendments short. We have 
10 amendments, and we have agreed to limit debate on those amendments 
to 1 hour each.
  These are amendments by Senators Moynihan and Baucus on the tax 
proposal. Senator Bayh, one of the most thoughtful Senators we have 
ever had in the Senate, has talked about another alternative.
  We have amendments offered by Senator Schumer from New York dealing 
with the college tuition tax credit. We have one amendment by Senator 
Dorgan who represents the farm community. He wants to do something 
about CRP in the tax bill. These are amendments that should take 
several hours if they were debated properly. We are willing to take a 
half an hour and have the majority have a half an hour. That seems 
fair, but we have been prevented from doing that.

  We could finish this bill in 1 day. The question is, Why will 
Republicans not stop casting blame and get on with the marriage tax 
penalty vote? Sadly, the answer is somewhere blowing in the wind. 
Republicans know Democrats have better proposals. Republicans also know 
that given a choice, the American people prefer the minority's 
approach. The American people say give us marriage tax penalty relief 
and a few other things such as prescription drug benefits for senior 
citizens, who simply are desperate for some relief. The average senior 
citizen gets 18 drug prescriptions filled a year with no benefit at all 
from Medicare, and we need to get that benefit to them. That is what we 
are trying to do.
  The majority, once again, is afraid, despite having the majority. 
They have a 10-Member majority in the Senate and they are afraid to 
cast votes on our amendments. That goes to other issues, too, not only 
marriage tax penalty. The majority never tire of using procedural 
maneuvers to block or delay on the issues the American people care 
about most.
  The majority today is out of step with the American people on issue 
after issue, so this majority spends most of its energy plotting ways 
to disguise its own extreme agenda, scurrying to avoid responsibility 
for its continuing failure to take up the problems the voters sent us 
to address. That is why the majority constantly resorts to procedural 
devices such as cloture, or another favorite, the conference committee 
``deep freeze,'' like they have done on the conference report on 
bankruptcy. We have been prevented from going forward with the Export 
Administration Act, which the high-tech community is very desirous of 
moving forward. Why? Because certain members of the majority think we 
are still in the cold war and we cannot go forward with bringing high-
tech industry into the modern world. That also takes into consideration 
our inability to go forward on the Juvenile Justice Act, which deals 
with gun safety for children, Patients' Bill of Rights, and a number of 
other things.
  The majority leader said on February 3:

       We're out of town 2 months and our approval rating went up 
     11 points. I think I've got this thing figured out.

  He is right. Whenever the majority, the Republicans who control 
Congress, are out of the public eye they seem to be better off. It is 
when the public sees how out of step they are that they get into 
trouble. That is what is going on. No one should be deceived. We are 
ready to go to work right now. We are simply waiting for the majority 
to stop their foot-dragging and blame games, stop hiding their faulty 
legislation behind procedural votes and get serious.
  When the majority works up the courage to have a real debate on these 
issues, to stand up and be counted on their ideas versus our ideas, we 
hope they will let us know. Until then, Republicans can file cloture as 
often as they like. It is a cynical and not very clever blame game. The 
Democrats are sick and tired of playing it, but we will continue to 
fight.

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